[akshayshah]

GitHub probably _had_ deep levels of performance expertise, but getting acquired by a megacorporation comes with a big shift in culture. I’d bet that many tenured GitHubbers left, and that there are relatively few people remaining who understand the core systems deeply.

Medium-term, the more closely aligned with the rest of Microsoft’s technology they can become, the better - not many MSFT folks understand the ins and outs of sharded Percona, but many of them do understand SQL Server and .NET.

[jen20]

I wouldn't assume SQL Server is the only database MS have core understanding of - they bought Citus Data not so long ago.

[akshayshah]

Sure, but the pool of Citus folks at Microsoft is relatively small. I’d assume that many Microsoft teams have worked with SQL Server for years, so it’s likely a widely-available skillset internally.